The tax season for the 2023 tax year has officially begun and the IRS is now accepting income tax return filings. Whether you prepare and file your returns yourself or hire a professional, here are some tips to file your return as efficiently as possible and gain the biggest financial rewards the tax code allows.

There’s a lot of talk about the tax gap and how there are billions of dollars that taxpayers don’t pay (or pay on time) to the IRS. However, a lot of this tax gap doesn’t come from the typical individual.

There’s a cynical saying that goes something like this: “No good deed goes unpunished.” If you’re not familiar with it, it means that people who act kindly will often get punished for their acts of kindness. Whether this is true may be up for debate. What’s not up to debate is that subject to certain conditions, the IRS will gladly tax anyone for the gifts they give.

Whether motivated by economic and/or environmental reasons, state and federal governments often offer financial incentives to individuals and businesses to utilize clean energy. One of the biggest monetary tools for promoting clean energy is through the use of energy tax credits.

If you’re a parent who regularly files income tax returns to the IRS, you’re probably already aware (and taking advantage of) the Child Tax Credit. But did you know there’s another tax credit you might be able to take advantage of if you’re a parent?

Getting in trouble with the IRS is not a fun experience. If you’re lucky, the only thing you’ll lose is your time (and maybe a little sanity). If you’re unlucky, you might have to pay some hefty monetary penalties to the IRS for unpaid taxes. In this blog post, we’ll examine why you might have to pay a penalty to the IRS. We’ll also look at ways to avoid having to pay tax penalties.

When you file a return with the IRS, you have to include more than just your name. You also need to include a Taxpayer Identification Number, or TIN. But many of you reading this right now are probably thinking, “I usually just put my Social Security number (SSN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN), so what’s a TIN?”

The vast majority of taxpayers try to file an accurate tax return with the IRS. But sometimes, they realize they made a mistake in the tax filing. In other situations, circumstances change, so the previously filed return is no longer correct.

Last month we discussed how to best survive an IRS tax audit. But wouldn’t it be nice to avoid the tax audit altogether? That’s the topic of this month’s blog post and in it, we’ll identify a few tips to prevent getting audited in the first place.